


making a home with you

by vulcanrise



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Drabble, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2020-10-26 01:16:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20733830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vulcanrise/pseuds/vulcanrise
Summary: the tender rituals of the mac + dennis household-tumblr prompts and other shorts





	1. Movie Night

Blue light dances behind Dennis' eyes. He can't make out any distinct shapes--

A gently jab on his shoulder brings him back to reality. He opens his eyes and casts a glance around the living room, confused.

"Yo dude, were you asleep?"

Mac is looking at him. The TV is on. _Right_. Luke's x-wing is navigating the narrow tunnel along the surface of the Death Star.

"Nah," Dennis responds. "Was jus' thinking about something."

Mac's hair is sticking up at the back of his head. It takes everything Dennis has not to reach out and smooth it down.

"Yeah? What're you thinking about?"

That Mac has never looked as good as he does now, relaxed and at ease with himself. That there's nowhere Dennis would rather be in this moment than in the home they've created together. That Dennis doesn't want to suffer through another day alone without Mac by his side like this.

That he can't say any of this out loud.

"Carrie Fisher was really hot back then."

He feels Mac's incredulous stare boring into the side of his head.

"What? Bro, she's not even in this scene. How long have you been asleep?"

Dennis feels a yawn making its way up through his body.

"Oh, that's right. You're too busy ogling young, hot Mark Hamill to appreciate the captivating spirit of young, hot Carrie Fisher."

He laughs to himself at Mac's fish-like expression as he shuffles on the couch to face Dennis.

"That is completely untrue! You and I both know that Harrison Ford is the hottest one of that cast, dude. It's practically an undisputable fact!"

"Indisputable," Dennis mutters under his breath.

"What was that?"

Dennis turns back to look at Mac. The tuft of hair is too distracting. He can ignore it--

"Dude, what are you doing?"

Dennis' hand freezes against the back of Mac's head. Mac's eyes are flicking across his face, his brows knit together. Dennis pushes down the urge to run his thumb over the crease between his eyebrows.

After too long a pause, he flattens Mac's hair one last time and pulls his hand back into his lap.

"Sorry, 'm just tired."

He feels Mac's arm settle around his shoulder and pull him towards the warmth radiating from his body. Close.

"Come on, bro. Movie's almost done."

The Millennium Falcon is swooping in to save the day. Dennis leans into Mac, nosing into his chest. He feels the slow and steady rhythm of Mac's heartbeat. It's like the cadence of a lullaby; of a love song.

He closes his eyes. From far away, he hears Mac's voice.

"Come on, hun. Stay awake."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is directly related to krista's movie night fic, as well as the tenderness spiral we had with anna and elliot last night. woke up and had to write this. enjoy, you've cursed me 💕


	2. Sweet To My Sour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt from anon  
_"you have a cute laugh"_

The rich couple called the cops on them eventually. Frank had somehow convinced the four of them that they had time for one more game of chicken before they had to get out of the water, but then they heard the sirens and it turned into a mad dash to grab their discarded clothes and run.

Mac hadn’t bothered checking to see where the rest of the gang had gone. Dennis had taken his hand and started running, and he hadn’t looked back.

They rounded behind a tree and dove into some bushes, laughing as they fell to the ground.

“Goddamn,” Dennis let out, chest heaving. “I haven’t felt that alive in a long time.”

Mac laughed. “Yeah, there really aren’t many places to hide in the suburbs.”

Just then, sirens whizzed past them and grew faint as they turned the next corner. Dennis kept a hand on his shoulder until they were completely gone. Even then, he barely let his grip loosen, trailing his wet hand all the way down Mac’s bare arm.

Mac met his gaze, eyes wide with excitement, and he let out another nervous giggle.

Dennis turned to look at him, then suddenly surged forward to meet him with a kiss. Mac felt himself melt and reached up to hold onto Dennis’s damp curls. His tongue met Dennis’ and Mac thought his heart would burst clean out of his chest.

Finally, Dennis pulled away, beaming. Mac searched his face for a moment. “What was that for?”

He shrugged, still grinning. “You have a cute laugh.”

Somewhere behind them, a door opened and a man yelled at them from the doorstep. Suddenly realizing they were nearly naked and hiding in bushes, they picked up their sopping clothes and started running.

As they took off down the street again, Mac couldn’t help but touch his fingers to his lips, and smile once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was originally a drabble but i figured it would be a good place to dump my macdennis prompt fills as well. feel free to send more!


	3. Road Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt from anonymous on tumblr to write about mac and den's engagement

Since the events of last Valentine’s Day, Dennis knows better than to doubt Mac when he says he has a surprise. He’s noticed that Mac has started to sneak around and tries to ignore it, but he's a curious bitch in love and needs to find out what it is.

He starts asking around to everyone else in the gang, who just don't give a shit about what Mac might be doing for Dennis, which obviously upsets Dennis even more. He's so frustrated and starts just asking Mac point blank what he's doing, trying to annoy him into confessing.

Finally, he's given up on the surprise ever coming to fruition and forgets about it for a few weeks. Until one day when Mac wakes him up and tells him the car is packed and ready to go for a secret road trip away from the gang. They drive and drive and stop in all sorts of little towns along the highways to see the world's biggest thumbtack or whatever, or visit the napkin museum.

They drive all the way to the Grand Canyon, completing the trip they had once promised to do. Dennis asks Mac if the trip was the surprise he's been planning this whole time, and Mac hesitates before saying yes. The whole trip is something out of a dream and they spend all their time enjoying the most out of each other while it's just the two of them together.

They get back to the apartment late at night and utterly exhausted. The next morning, Dennis wakes to the smell of coffee and breakfast that Mac has prepared. When he goes into the kitchen to meet him, Dennis spots a small velvet box on the table next to his cup. He's shocked when Mac goes down on one knee and barely has enough time to get out the question before Dennis has his arms around him and is saying yes a thousand times yes.

When they finally stop kissing, Dennis asks Mac why he didn't ask him while they were at the Grand Canyon.

"Because we've loved each other for a very long time. I wanted it to be somewhere that had meaning."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! again, this is an old thing i wrote back in the fall that i figured i might as well add here.


	4. Breakfast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the morning after they buy the bar, mac and dennis have breakfast.
> 
> prompt from the wonderful luce on tumblr

The papers were still sitting on the kitchen table. Three signatures cementing a future together. For now, at least.

Dennis scraped the scrambled eggs onto two plates, carefully placing them so they wouldn’t leak into the toast stacked to the side.

“Hey, you want any salt or pepper on these eggs? I got hot sauce too, if you’d like.”

He continued humming to himself as he put the final touches with the bacon on both plates. Noticing the distinct lack of response, he turned around.

“Hun?”

Mac was sitting at the table, staring transfixed at the document that declared them the owners of a new pub. Rather, the new owners of an old pub. They definitely hadn’t splurged for quality.

Dennis leaned over to Mac’s side and wrapped his arm over his shoulder. “What’s the matter, sweetie?”

Mac blinked a few times and looked up at Dennis. His eyes were beginning to look a little red. Was he about to—

“Oh, it’s nothing,” he assured, though his voice shook a little. “You’d find it stupid.”

“Hey, no, don’t say that,” said Dennis. He ran his hands down Mac’s arms and rested his chin on his shoulder. “What’s up?”

He felt Mac take a deep breath below him.

“It’s just, I dunno,” he tried. “I guess I just feel like I never expected this to happen.”

Dennis slid off his shoulders and into the seat next to Mac. “Expected what to happen? Us?”

“No,” he laughed. “That was pretty clear ever since your junior year when you asked me out to that fancy Italian place for a ‘friendship anniversary dinner’.”

Give or take a few years. Dennis had been dropping hints since high school, becoming less and less subtle with each passing year. Mac could be such an idiot sometimes.

“No,” Mac said again. “I didn’t think I’d ever actually, like, _do_ something with my life.”

He noted the confused look on Dennis’ face and tried again.

“It’s like, you went to a college after high school and got a degree, but I never got to do any of that shit.”

_A_ college. The University of Pennsylvania was more than just _a_ college where he went to get _a_ degree in biology and psychology and Mac was a _fool_ if he couldn’t appreciate—

“Like, I wasn’t doing anything while you were gone,” Mac continues, failing to notice Dennis rolling his eyes. “After my dad went to jail, I realized I had to stop selling drugs or I’d end up just like him. And then what? I worked at a disgusting gas station for a while, but I am positive there was some shady shit going on in the back.”

“Yeah, dude,” Dennis agreed. “Gas stations don’t carry ‘baking soda’, or whatever it was Dave told you.”

“For sure, babe. And he always had me take my breaks at weird times, like whenever his cousins came by the back.”

“There is no way that was a legal operation,” Dennis added.

Mac sighed. “Yeah, I know. And I thought that was gonna be the rest of my life, y’know? Working jobs at shady places until I get fired for being late or whatever.”

Dennis would have liked to interject and say he certainly hoped Mac would be showing up on time now that they owned a business together, but Mac looked down at his twisting hands and continued.

“And now with the bar, it’s like I get a chance to make something of myself. This is the first time I’ve felt like maybe my life won’t be so shitty after all.”

Mac looked up to meet Dennis’ gaze, and something inside him broke. Of course, he hadn’t been going through this in a selfish way. After all, he had just signed a mortgage with two guys who had barely any credit and even less savings.

Dennis felt like an absolute idiot. Obviously, this meant more to Mac than it could to him. Paddy’s was a run-down bar in what looked to be an old warehouse in South Philly. It smelled like stale beer and mould, and Dennis was almost positive there was a rat problem in the basement.

But for Mac, this bar was a symbol. It represented the possibility of leaving the life he’d been born into. Dennis knew that Mac had always had big dreams when they were in high school, but he’d never been able to pursue them. He would probably never be leaving the neighbourhood where he grew up, but at least he’d have something to show for himself when he’d look back on his life.

In that moment, despite the mould and the rats and the prospect of growing old in an aging bar, Dennis knew he would do absolutely anything to make this happiness last as long as he could.

He leaned over to Mac, tilted his face towards his own and kissed him softly. His hand glided back into Mac’s hair as they moved gently against each other. It had felt like home for a long time already, but now that meant something even more.

Mac broke the kiss with wide eyes. “What was that for?”

“Nothing,” Dennis said as he smiled. “I’m just really happy I’ll be doing this with you.”

“And Charlie,” Mac added quickly.

Dennis gave a small laugh. “And Charlie.”

Their lips met again as they held each other, both dreaming of the long future ahead of them. Dennis couldn’t wait to watch the years go by with Mac.

Dennis gently brushed his hand along Mac’s jaw as they parted. Turning back to the kitchen counter, he noticed the two plates with the now cold meals waiting for them. Microwaved breakfasts again, then.

“Alright, babe; let’s eat. We’ve got a big day ahead of us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks again for reading! this is from way back in september a few days before the new season aired. kinda ooc but hey it's cute.


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